"He looks so white, my friend is afraid people are going to think she's her own kid's Asian babysitter."
"You know that's my worst fear about the kids H and I will (hopefully) have one day. If somebody mistakes me for the ayah, I am going to LAY THE SMACK DOWN."
"I doubt that's going to happen. Not when you're calling out their Indian names."
"That is exactly why I want them to have those; maybe then they'll feel a desire to connect with the culture. Right?"
"Dude, your hopes are so high. You're talking about your future children connecting with culture when you're not even married yet. Lower your expectations about those kids."
"So I should just hope they'll learn a little of the language?"
"Cadiz, when you become a parent, you'll be ecstatic if your kid will flush the toilet."
Ayah means dad in Malay! Hey-o! What does it mean in...I was about to say Indian, but that's not right is it? School me please.
ReplyDeleteOkay, but if you have a boy you know what his middle name has to be right?
ReplyDeleteI already have so many fears about how my theoretical kids. What if they turn out to be Republicans? That alone might keep me on the pill.
ReplyDeleteI'm reasonably confident that our children will know how to flush the toilet. But what I'm even more confident of is that they will also know how to replace the roll of toilet paper when it runs out. Because if they don't, their father will go F$%&ing insane.
ReplyDeleteI'll do my best not to make the children too pale.
i only know "ayah" from the book The Secret Garden, in which the children of British people occupying India were taken care of by native women and referred to them as such. but i'd have no choice to lay the smack down anyway if someone thought i was the ayah in the Malay sense, too.
ReplyDeletei love that tradition, madelyn, and of course i know that middle-name slot is already spoken for.
Noelle: Can you imagine how rough it must have been for hippies Elise and Steven to have given birth to Alex P. Keaton?
I'll be happy if they are 50% brown (but i'm not holding my breath). And about that t.p. thing, you better get to training them from day one.
Your children are going to be beautiful! I can't wait to meet them. Do you have potential names picked out?
ReplyDeleteThe children will come out looking tanned, not too white, not very brown.
ReplyDeleteEverybody will KNOW you're the mother. And everywhere you go people are going to ooh and ahh about how exotic and beautiful the children are.
I know this from growing up in the Caribbean with so many mixed friends, and having cousins who've married all shades of pale.